Monday, March 28, 2011

Tres Leches Cake

....Or as my mom puts it: "Yummy yummy yummy, Tres Leches in my tummy!" Bahahahaha! She had never had this kind of cake before I made it. Let me just say, she is HOOKED. This is the cake that I personally don't like, as I am a texture freak. Certain textures in food just completely turns me off. This is one of them. But everyone who's tried this has LOVED it. It is basically a sponge cake that has been slowly drizzled with a mixture of "three milks" and then left alone for a couple hours to absorb every bit of that super sweetness.

TRES LECHES CAKE:

Instructions for making this into a layer cake after the main recipe. :)

1 cup sugar

5 egg yolks ROOM TEMP!

5 egg whites ROOM TEMP!

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1) 14oz can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

1) 12oz can Evaporated Milk

1 pint heavy whipping cream

Preheat your oven to 350 and spray your pan(s) with nonstick spray or butter and flour them. You can use a 13x9 baking dish, that is what most people use when making this as it just makes it easier. I use a 9 inch Spring form pan.

In a large bowl, beat your egg YOLKS with 3/4 cup of sugar until light in color and double in volume. Stir in milk, vanilla extract, flour and baking powder.

Here's my FAAAAAVORITE part.... (sarcasm alert! I'm not fond of this step, but it is of MAJOR importance. This is what makes your cake super light and airy) In a small bowl containing your room temp egg whites, add the remaining sugar (1/4 cup) and beat to stiff peaks. Now I don't know if I just especially suck at this and am SUPER slow or what- but this step can take me anywhere from 15-20 minutes! LOL (maybe cuz its cold out?) BAH! whatever!

Carefully fold your egg whites into your cake mixture. Seriously be very gentle, you don't want to deflate them! You worked so hard to get all of that air into them! (well, at least I did!)

Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.

Cool 10 minutes in the pan then run a thin knife gently around the edges of pan to loosen. Remove cake from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Place cooled cake on a deep sided dish (or if you're using the 13x9 just go ahead and leave it in the pan) Poke surface of cake all over with a fork (wipe fork off whenever you get crumbs accumulated on it)

Mix your sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream in a large measuring cup. (mix it well) Toss 1 cup of the milk. Seriously, that extra cup always proves to be too much. toss it, save it in your fridge to use as creamer for your coffee, whatever! Makes no difference to me! :)

Slooooooowly pour milk mixture over top of cake. Let it sit so that it absorbs all of the milkage. lol

Whip remaining heavy whipping cream with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you like your whipped cream to be) until it thickens to a nice spreading consistency. DO NOT OVER BEAT. It will turn to "butter" and cant really be brought back.

Frost your cake with whipped cream frosting OR you can just put put a dollop on top of each piece as you serve it. Top with strawberries if desired. :)

To Make This Into A Layer Cake:

Follow above recipe up to step 6. While cake is cooling, make your Whipped Cream Frosting from step 10. Wash and slice your strawberries. After cake has cooled, slice your cake into layers.

Place bottom layer into dish that has deep sides. Poke holes into cake and drizzle with half of the milk mixture. Now spread on a layer of whipped cream, add a layer of sliced strawberries, and then add another thin layer of whipped cream to hold berries in place.

Add top layer of cake and poke holes into it and drizzle with remaining milk mixture. Frost top and sides of cake with Whipped Cream and arrange strawberries on top. Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired.